GPS First XV rugby: St Joseph’s Nudgee the unofficial COVID era premiers
St Joseph’s Nudgee College are the unofficial Covid-era premiers of GPS First XV Rugby after remaining unbeaten in the lockdown-interrupted season – despite a scare against IGS.
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There was no formal premiership presentation, but St Joseph’s Nudgee College can rightly claim to be moral victors – the COVID-19 era premiers – after completing its five matches unbeaten.
Nudgee survived a scare to defeat Ipswich Grammar School 17-13 before a joyous crowd at Ross Oval.
Understandably the GPS association opted to withdraw premiership status for term 3 sports after the heart of the season was carved out by a COVID-19 lockdown, but morally Nudgee can claim to be the competition victor.
Most telling is that not one rival school coach who opposed Nudgee this season would argue they were not the best team in 2021.’
In other matches today, Toowoomba Grammar School kept the close results coming with a last second win over Brisbane State High School, Churchie beat BGS 34-10 while the Southport School fullback Jye Grey pressed the go button to spark his team to a 29-12 win over St Joseph’s Gregory Terrace.
But Cormac Pearson reported Nudgee College beat IGS, but only after Ipswich Grammar, led by Will Sullivan and Brayden O’Sullivan, rallied to almost unseat their rivals.
Director of rugby Sean Graham said the squad did have to adjust itself mentally after a decision was made last month not to play for a premiership.
“We had to recreate the narrative internally, obviously the decision was made that we weren’t playing for a premiership so it was all about going through undefeated, that was the goal and we’ll celebrate the fact we did that,” he said.
“Full credit to Ipswich they were a real nuisance today… we probably wanted it easy today and it wasn’t and it turned into a real arm wrestle.”
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Graham said the highlights of the year was the defensive masterclass against BBC and the complete performance against TSS last week.
“There is a good balance between power, workers in the pack, a really good halves pairing and then some speed and obviously some real solid punch.”
“Having a player like Rob Toia in the team brings a real balance.”
Only three points separated the undefeated Nudgee side from Ipswich who finished the season strongly.
Nudgee threatened to blow the game open in the second half but Ipswich hung in.
With minutes left, Ipswich were down by just five points and Nudgee were down a man from a yellow card.
Ipswich were disallowed a try in the dying minutes with just a blade of grass on the sideline denying them pulling off the upset of the year.
Ipswich Director of Sport Nigel Grieve said they were very proud of how the side finished off the year.
“They have been gutsy all year with their defence to be honest, they are well drilled, courageous but just aren’t quite getting the points,” he said.
“To come to Ross Oval at any stage and be competitive is an amazing effort.”
Nudgee finished the year with five wins, while Churchie, Gregory Terrace and The Southport School finished with three wins.
On the Internationals Oval at Tennyson, enormous TSS props Carsen Patu and Massimo de Lutiis supplied the heavy timber and fullback Grey the ignition to spark his side from a 0-7 deficit to a 29-7 lead over Terrace.
Grey used his blinding pace to score a 70 solo try to break a 7-all deadlock, then loomed in support of Kaleb Ngamanu and Fraser Cowan to turn over ball into another five pointer.
TSS woke from their first half slumber to raise the tempo of the match, doing everything with greater purpose to construct 29 unanswered points in a 20 minute blitz.
But Terrace had achieved too much this season to cave in, and in the last 10 minutes of the match gained better than parity.
A pick and drive try to Angus Munn and another near miss down the right hand touchline ensured TSS hit the finish line as they had started – working hard to repel Terrace.
With Xavier Stiles, locks Grambower and Munn and powerhouse No. 8 PJ Su’a leading the way, Terrace more than matched their rivals in the first half.
But TSS ramped up their effort in every aspect, generating a powerhouse scrum, and hitting pick and drives and rolling mauls confrontations with gusto.
Catu and de Lutiis moved forward like Sherman tanks, unstoppable forces and off their ball skill TSS generated front foot attacking phase ball.
Flankers Jock McCormack and Xavier Smith-Power also worked hard and behind his pack fly half Syris Schmidt looked to release his backline.
Hooker Cooper McGeary scored from a perfectly executed rolling maul just minutes into the second half to set a high water mark for his side.
Like a wave off Kirra point, you could see the forwards move into formation and sweep McGeary across the line.
At Toowoomba Grammar School, two tries within the space of the last 90 seconds saw the lead change three times as TGS had a 21-19 win.
Toowoomba Grammar looked to have done enough to hold on for victory against an upbeat BSHS whose skill set was on show for all to see.
But BSHS scored what looked like the winning try, before TGS regained possession from the restart.
With the whistle about to blow, TGS’s rolling maul finished with captain Charlie Wigan crossing.
At Northgate, Churchie scored a 34-10, a solid, dominant win to finish the season.
Centre Larzio Sword was enormous for Churchie, with his athletic ability to the fore as Churchie rolled toward victory across the first half hour.
Then, when called upon to defend, Churchie also did well.
“We controlled possession and scored some really entertaining tries, and I thought our effort in defence was good,’’ said coach Ryan Schultz.
In the forwards Churchie’s Charlie Brosnan finished with a flourish, producing a season best performance.
Brisbane Grammar School coach Phil Mooney said his team played some of its best rugby – the only problem was that Churchie played better.
But young tighthead prop Jack Spencer continued to develop and rookie No. 8 Charlie McCauley shone, while centre Campbell Watchirs lead by example.
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